In the Mirror
by Kuraun Kuraun
Summary: As she stared upon the words written by the girl in the mirror, realization struck her. Both were fighting for a world that was not their own, though their paths would never intertwine. They were the same, yet different. Written for Living Animation.


_**Author's** **Note** _- This work is part of a project that I have been working on with **Suezanne**. It is written in conjunction to her own piece, and is told in my character's point of view. Christine is NOT my character; she belongs to **Suezanne** Madelynn, however, belongs to me and comes from _Living Animation. _

__**Disclaimer** - I do not own_ D. Gray-Man_. The original plot and its characters are property of Katsura Hoshino.

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><p>Living in a parallel universe had its advantages sometimes.<p>

For one, it took a lot for Katsura Hoshino's world to catch Madelynn off guard. Ever since she had unintentionally stepped into the world of Exorcists and Noah she had slowly grown accustomed to the everyday occurrences that she would have considered odd so many months ago.

So when she randomly found herself standing in the middle of the Ark for some unfathomable reason, she didn't think much of it. After all, such instances weren't very uncommon to her.

Creepy, but not uncommon.

Madelynn merely shrugged before heading on her way, attempting to piece together just what she'd been doing. Faintly, on the edges of her memory, she could recall helping Lenalee deliver coffee, but after that was a blank slate. Though she could've sworn she'd felt something hard connect with her head.

Might that relate to the look of horror on Lenalee's face?

But that still didn't explain how she was in the Ark. Alone.

Shoot. That meant she was out cold, didn't it?

She wasn't given much time to dwell on this before noticing a door hanging wide open. Blinking in surprise, she peered inside, only to realize it was the Fourteenth's room.

Now _that_ was odd.

The Fourteenth's room was only open whenever Allen went inside, which was a rarity.

So she was dreaming.

"Great," she mumbled to herself, and was about to continue her stroll when something caught her eye.

A violin.

Curiosity ebbing away at her, she entered the room and made her way to the instrument, which was resting on top of the white piano. Once more, she gave a shrug of indifference, and was about to pick it up when she noticed a reflection in the mirror.

One that was not the Fourteenth's or her own.

Alright. Some things in the world still caught her off guard; this was one of them.

And by the look in the other girl's eyes, she was startled too.

Madelynn watched with a mixture of tense and interest as the girl studied her. Judging by the Exorcist coat, she could only assume she was an Exorcist as well; though that didn't explain why she had never seen her before. If anything stood out, it was most definitely her eyes, which were purple in contrast to her long, brown hair.

Finally, after several moments, the girl spoke. Only Madelynn didn't catch a single word. The only hints that indicated she had done so was the way her lips had moved, her eye brows raised in question.

"I'm sorry," she replied, a little awkwardly, "I can't hear you."

Though she already knew speaking was futile; if she couldn't hear the girl, there was no way she was hearing her.

Luckily, the girl seemed to realize this too. Producing a marker seemingly out of nowhere, Madelynn could only blink as she indicated for her to do the same. To her surprise, however, one was in her coat pocket.

She watched as the girl wrote on the mirror. Within seconds, _Christine Avalon Lux_ was scrawled in neat handwriting. Madelynn nodded silently to herself, committing the name to memory before writing her own name on the mirror. From there, their conversation carried on.

_Austin, Texas._

_Enumclaw, Washington_.

The girl, now known as Christine, thought hard for a moment. _2010_.

Hard as she tried, she couldn't keep her eyes from widening. Such a statement – no matter how small - was one she would have only dreamed of ever receiving. Part of her refused to acknowledge such a thing as reality, yet a small part of her yearned to believe this girl she had met by chance was truly in the same boat she had been placed in.

_Can you go home?_ She wrote with trembling fingers. So many questions were swarming in her head. If this girl was just as real as she was, were the others trapped just like them? Would their paths ever intertwine?

_No, but it doesn't matter much to me. Most of my family is dead. You?_

Madelynn strained to conjure enough words to offer her condolences, but none would come. _I can, but I choose to stay here as an Exorcist. My mother understands._ She thought hard for a moment before she asked, _How far in the series were you before you came here?_

_Not that far, but I did get a lot of spoilers._

_Did you come with future knowledge?_ Madelynn, herself, had not been faced with this challenge. That still didn't stop people from trying to getting more from her than she could give, though.

_Yes, I landed here about a year before the series started so everything I'd read about had yet to happen._

Briefly, she wondered how Christine had found access to the Fourteenth's room. Had the door been open for her too, or did she have the power to open an entranceway to it?

_Can you make gates?_ She asked out of curiosity more than anything.

_Yes._

So Christine held the Fourteenth's Will too?

Madelynn was drawn away from her musings when Christine wrote on the mirror once more. _You're the Violinist. The Accompanist._

She nodded, not quite certain how the other Exorcist had gained such knowledge. Before she could question the origin of such information, however, it felt as it something had finally made the connection in her mind.

_You're the Voice. The Singer._

This was it, she realized. Whether or not there were others just like them, their paths will never meet. They were the same, yet different.

As Madelynn's eyes fell on what looked to be a toy fox, she perked with interest. _Innocence?_

_Yes. Eighty-nine percent synchronization rate. You?_

_Thirty percent. How long have you had it?_

_More than ten years, but I've only been fighting with it for about a year._

She nodded in understanding. _I've had mine for about four months and have been fighting with it for three._

_Not much time to train. Who trained you to use it? Kanda and Lenalee trained me to use mine._

_Allen. They figured he'd be best because it's his Innocence._

_How did you get it?_

_Crown Clown split. You?_

_My sister bought Youko for me at a garage sale. I didn't find out it was Innocence until later._

_How do you feel about it?_

_How do I feel about it? The war? Or my Innocence? Well, sometimes I feel like it'll never end; like I'll be fighting forever. Other times I feel like it's going to come to an end soon. If you're asking about my Innocence, I can honestly say I love it like it's family but also a part of me. Losing it would be like losing an arm or my heart._

Sensing that Christine was waiting to hear of her own perspective, Madelynn took a deep breath. There wasn't much that she kept to herself now that she was far more open with her comrades, but this particular topic was by the far the most personal to her. It was one thing to tell her comrades she was another dimension, but it was much harder to tell them where she came from they were viewed as merely a figment of someone's imagination.

And it was even harder to tell them she, herself, had thought of them as only such.

Steadying herself, she began, and was surprised to find that the words came much more easily. _I was really terrified at first, to be honest. It felt as though I was being forced to fight for a world that I was not part of, nor did I have any desire to be in it. I wanted nothing more than to return to my family and friends and resume the life I once had. Over time, however, I realized my comrades were more than just ink on paper; they were just as human as I was._ She smiled softly to herself. _I have come to love this world and the people in it as much as my home world and I will do everything in my power to prevent the Earl from destroying them. I still miss my friends and family, but I have made more on this journey, and I will stand by them until the end. They are the reason that I fight._

Upon reading back over what she had written, she added, ever curious, _Why is it that you fight, Christine?_

_Why do I fight? That's a complicated question. At first, I fought because I didn't want to be alone and fighting gave me a place to go home to, then I got so attached to the Order I started fighting to keep everyone as safe as I could make them. Sometimes I wish I wasn't chosen by Innocence. I was shy and to be honest was the 'wouldn't hurt a fly' type before I got involved in this war. Most of the time I manage to focus on the good I'm doing and that helps a lot._

Somehow, hearing Christine's story was rejuvenating. It felt good to know she wasn't entirely alone; that somewhere, in some other dimension, someone was facing the same struggles as she was.

Madelynn wasn't certain how long their conversation carried on. Quite some time had passed when she remembered she was still unconscious. Briefly, she wondered what was happening in the world of the living. It wasn't everyday an Exorcist was whacked in the back of the head.

"Mattie?"

Madelynn jumped, whirling around to face who had spoken. Allen stood in the doorway, eye brow raised in what could only be in bewilderment. It took her a moment to realize it was because the mirror's surface was currently covered almost entirely in her writing.

"Yes?" she replied innocently, futilely attempting to hide the marker behind her back. She greatly resembled a child that had been caught stealing from a cookie jar.

Allen was silent for a moment, obviously attempting to make sense of the scene before him. "Redecorating, I see," he said after a moment, scratching his head in wonder. "Any reason for writing on the mirror?"

Judging by the fact that he said nothing of Christine, Madelynn decided it was safe to assume he couldn't see her. That still didn't help the fact that he was looking for an explanation, however. "Well…" she turned to face the mirror, hoping for something to come to mind. She blinked in surprise upon noticing that Christine's attention was no longer on their conversation, but rather Allen, who seemed to have stumbled upon the Fourteenth's room as well. There didn't seem to be much of a difference in his appearance from the Allen that existed in her dimension, other than the fact that his hair was longer, reaching to his shoulders.

Remembering that Allen had asked her a question, she turned back to him. "Yeah, I thought the room could use a little more color."

Allen peered closer at her handwriting. "What'd you write, anyway?"

"That's not really important," she said quickly, tugging him back by the arm. After seeing Christine follow the other Allen out of the room, a small smile appeared on her face. "About time I returned too, huh?" she mumbled to herself, earning another confused look from her companion.

"Are you sure you didn't hit your head again?"

She gave him a sly smile. "Well, I _am_ the clumsiest Exorcist you will ever know."

Allen's priceless expression was the last thing she saw before darkness clouded her vision.

* * *

><p>"I didn't <em>mean<em> to hit her! I wasn't aiming for anybody!"

A low moan escaped her lips as she stirred, forcing her heavy eye lids to open. For a moment, she merely stared at the small group of bystanders that had gathered around her - most of all Allen, Lenalee, and a rather sheepish Lavi - as she tried to piece together what was happening around her.

And why it smelled like fish.

It was only when Allen stopped waving his hand so frantically, having finally noticed she was conscious now, that she realized he was holding a fish stick. She raised an eye brow.

"You used a fish stick as a smelling salt?" Upon seeing him smile nervously, she took it as an affirmative. She winced, feeling a headache coming on. "Where am I, anyway?"

"Well, to put it bluntly, you're lying in the middle of a hallway."

Eyes widening, she immediately sprung upward, and would've collided into Allen had he not moved out of reflex. Lavi scrambled away from her, but relaxed upon realizing she was interested in pursuing him and let out a sigh of relief. "I'm okay," she announced after noticing the worried looks she was receiving.

"How are you feeling?" Lenalee asked her in concern, helping her back onto her feet.

"Better than before, I suppose. What hit me, anyway?"

"Not sure, really. Sorry, Mattie." Lavi replied, secretly slipping his hammer back in its holster.

"_Madelynn_! How many times do I have to say it–hey! Why are you trying to hide your Innocence." Her eyes widened in realization. "It was _you_!"

"Now, now, let's not jump to conclusions here!"

Madelynn wasn't hearing any of his excuses, however. "I know I accidentally cut your hair that first time we sparred–"

"Mattie..."

"–But is it really necessary to use me as a piñata?"

"Actually, I was aiming for Timothy." He added when she stared at him in disbelief. "The little squirt stole my bandana! Besides, I wasn't _intending_ to hit anyone – I just wanted to scare the living daylights out of him."

"And yet you knocked the living daylights out of Mattie." Allen commented nonchalantly, grinning as Lavi's glare fixated on him.

"You're not helping the situation any, Bean Sprout."

"It's _Allen_."

"No, it's Beanie," Madelynn piped in, smiling innocently as the boy's eyes widened.

"Not you too, Mattie!"

Madelynn giggled before meeting Lenalee's gaze. "Shall we go deliver coffee?"

Lavi raised an eye brow. "Let me get this straight. We have to clean up your brother's office while you two deliver coffee to that whacko?"

"_We_?" Allen chimed, eye brow raised. "It's _your_ punishment."

"What are you being punished for?" Madelynn inquired curiously.

"Threatening a fellow Exorcist with Innocence and harming another with said Innocence."

"Oh... well, have fun, you two."

"See ya!" Lavi called out, waving ecstatically while dragging away a protesting Allen. Both girls smiled, offering their own farewells before heading the opposite way.

"Wait!" Madelynn said suddenly, turning around. Relief washed over Allen's face. It would've obvious for anyone that he thought she was coming to his rescue, however Madelynn was not that observant. "Allen, are you going to eat that?" she asked, gesturing to the fish sticks.

Allen let out a long sigh, but tossed the bag to her anyway. "Thanks! See you at dinner tonight!"

"You seem more cheerful," Lenalee commented once they were out of earshot from the others. "Did something happen?"

"Nah," she replied with a smile. "I just had a really good dream."

Although the road that laid ahead of her would be dark and twisted, hard and thorny, there would also be moments for her to cherish. This world was just as much as her own as everyone else now that she called it home. And while she did not know what the future had in store for her, there was no turning back now.

Not when she had others counting on her.

Her resolve to save this world from destruction was stronger than ever, and all because of the girl she had met in the mirror.


End file.
